Chapter 2
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Seeing Life as a Dream29 October 1969 am iation Camp at Dwarka, Gujarat, India A few questions have been asked about last nights talk.
Question 1
ONE FRIEND HAS ASKED: ONE DIE FULLY SCIOUS, BUT HOW ONE BE IN FULL SCIOUSNESS AT BIRTH?
Actually, death and birth are not two events, they are two ends of the same phenomenon -- just like two sides of the same .
If a man have one side of a in his hand, the other side will be in his hand automatically.
Its not possible to have one side of a in my hand and then wonder how to get the other side -- the other side bees available automatically.
Death and birth are two sides of the same phenomenon.
If death occurs in a scious state, then birth iably takes pla a scious state.
If death occurs in an unscious state, then birth happens in a state of unsciousoo.
If a person dies fully scious at the time of his death, he will be filled with sciousness at the moment of his birth also.
Since we all die in a state of unsciousness and are born in a state of unsciousness, we remember nothing of our past lives.
However, the memory of our past lives always remains present in some er of our minds, and this memory be revived if we so desire.
With birth we ot do anything directly; whatsoever we do is possible only iion to death.
Nothing be doer death; whatsoever is to be done must be done before death.
A person dying in an unscious state ot do anything until he is bain -- there is no way; he will tio remain unscious.
Hence, if you died before in an unscious state, you will have to be bain in an unscious state.
Whatsoever is to be done must be done before death, because we have lots of opportunities before death, the opportunity of a whole lifetime.
With this opportunity an effort be made towards awakening.
So, it will be a great mistake if someone keeps waiting until the moment of death to awaken.
You t awaken at the time of death.
The sadhana, the jourowards awakening, will have to begin long before death; a preparation will have to be made for it.
Without preparation one is sure to remain unscious ih.
Although, in a way, this unscious state is for your own good if you are not yet ready to be born in a scious state.
Around 1915, the ruler of Kashi had an abdominal operation.
This was the first such operation ever performed in the world without the use of ahesia.
There were three British physis who refused to perform the operation without giving ahesia, saying it was impossible to have a mans stomach open for one-and-a-half to two hours during a major operation without making the patient unscious.
It was dangerous -- the danger was that the patient might scream, move, jump or fall because of the unbearable pain; anything might happen.
Hehe doctors were not ready.
But the ruler maintaihere was no cause for as long as he remained iation and said he could easily remain iation for one-and-a-half to two hours.
He was not willing to take the ahetic; he said he wished to be operated upon in his scious state.
But the physis were relut; they believed it was dangerous to have someone gh such pain in a scious state.
However, seeing no other alternative, the physis first asked him, as an experiment, to go into meditation.
Then they made a cut in his hand -- there was not even a tremor.
Only two hours later did he plain that his hand hurt; he did not feel anything for two hours.
Subsequently, the operation erformed.
That was the first operation to be performed in the world where physis worked on a patients open stomach for an hour-and-a-half without giving ahetic.
And the ruler remained fully scious throughout the operation.
Deep meditation is required to be in such awareness.
The meditation has to be so deep as to make oally aware, without an iota of doubt, that the self and the body are separate.
Even the slightest identification with the body be dangerous.
Death is the biggest surgical operation there is.
No physi has ever performed aion as big as this -- because ih there is a meism to transplant the eal energy, the prana, from one physical body into another physical body.
No one has ever performed such a phenomenal operation, nor it ever be done.
We may sever one part of the body or another, or transplant one part or another, but in the case of death, the eal energy has to be taken from one body aered into another.
Nature has kindly seen to it that we bee fully unscious at the occurrence of this phenomenon.
It is for our own good; we might not be able to bear that much pain.
It is possible that the reason why we bee unscious is because the pain of death is so unbearable.
It is in our own ihat we bee unscious; nature does not allow us to remember passing through death.
In every life we repeat almost the same mistakes we have repeated in our past lives.
If we could only recall what we did in our past lives, we might not fall into the same ditches again.
And if we could only remember what we did throughout our previous lives, we could no longer remain the same as we are now.
It is impossible we could remain the same, because time and time again we have amassed wealth and every time death has made all that wealth meaningless.
If we could recall this, we might not carry, any lohe same craze for money within us as we did before.
We have fallen in love a thousand times, and time and time again it has ultimately proven to be meaningless.
If we could recall this, our craze for falling in love with others and for having others fall in love with us would disappear.
Thousands upon thousands of times we have been ambitious, egoistic; we have attained success, high position, and in the end all of it has turned out to be useless, all of it has turo dust.
If we could recall this, perhaps our ambition would lose its steam, and then we would not remain the same people we are now.
Since we do not remember our past lives, we keep moving in almost the same circle.
Man does not realize that he has gohrough the same circle many times before, and that he is going through it once again in the same hope he carried with him so often before.
Theh ruins all hopes, and once again the cycle begins.
Man moves in circles like an ox on a water-wheel.
One save oneself from this harm, but it requires great awareness and tinuous experimentation.
One ot start waiting for death all at once, because one ot bee suddenly aware during such a big operation, under such a great trauma.
We will have to experiment slowly.
We will have to experiment slowly with small miseries to see how we be aware while going through them.
For example, you have a headache.
At one and the same time you bee aware and begin to feel that you have a headache, not that the head is in pain.
So one will have to experiment otle headache and learn to feel that, "The pain is in the head and I am aware of it.
"
When Swami Ram was in America people had great difficulty following him in the beginning.
When the president of America paid him a visit, he uzzled too.
He asked, "What language is this?" -- because Ram used to speak ihird person.
He would not say, "I am hungry," he would say, "Ram is hungry.
" He would not say, "I have a headache," he would say, "Ram has a severe headache.
"
In the beginning people had great difficulty following him.
For example, he once said, "Last night Ram was freezing.
" When asked who he was referring to, he replied that he was referring to Ram.
When he was asked, "Which Ram?" he said, pointing to himself, "This Ram -- the puy was freezing cold last night.
We kept laughing and asked, Hows the cold Ram?"
He would say, "Ram was walking oreet and some people began swearing at him.
We had a belly laugh and said, How do you like the swearing, Ram? If you seek honor, you are bound to meet with insult.
" When people asked, "Who are you talking about, which Ram?" he would point to himself.
You will have to start experimenting with minor kinds of miseries.
You enter them every day in life; they are present every day -- not only miseries, you will have to include happiness in the experiment also, because it is more difficult to be aware in happihan it is to be in misery.
It is not so difficult to experiehat your head and the pain in it are two separate things, but it is more difficult to experiehat, "The body is separate and the joy of beihy is separate from me too -- I am not even that.
" It is difficult to maintain this distance when we are happy because in happiness we like to be close to it.
While in misery, we obviously want to feel separate, away from it.
Should it bee certain that the pain is separate from us, we want it to stay that way so we be free of it.
You will have to experiment on how to remain aware in misery as well as in happiness.
One who carries out such experiments often brings misery upon himself, of his own free will, in order to experie.
This is basically the secret of all asceticism: it is an experiment to undergo voluntary pain.
For example, a man is on a fast.
By remaining hungry he is trying to find out what effect hunger has on his sciousness.
Ordinarily, a person who is on a fast hasnt the slightest notion of what he is doing -- he only knows that he is hungry and looks forward to having his meal the day.
The fual purpose of fasting is to experiehat, "Hunger is there, but it is far away from me.
The body is hungry, I am not.
" So by indug hunger voluntarily, one is trying to know, from within, if hunger is there.
Ram is hungry -- I am not hungry.
I know hunger is there, and this has to bee a tinuous knowing until I reach a point where a distance occurs between me and the hunger -- where I no longer remain hungry -- even in hunger I no longer remain hungry.
Only the body stays hungry and I know it.
I simply remain a knower.
Then the meaning of fasting bees very profound; then it does not mean merely remaining hungry.
Normally, one who goes on a fast keeps repeating twenty-four hours a day that he is hungry, that he has en any food that day.
His mind tio fantasize about the food he will eat the day and plans for it.
This kind of fasting is meaningless.
Then it is merely abstaining from food.
The distin between abstaining from food and fasting, upvasa, is this: fasting means residing closer and closer.
Closer to what? It means ing closer to the self by creating a distance from the body.
The word upvasa does not imply going without food.
Upvasa means residing closer and closer.
Closer to what? It means closer to the self, residing closer to the self and further away from the body.
Then it is also possible that a man may eat a remain iate of fasting.
If, while eating, he knows from within that eating is taking place elsewhere and the sciousness is totally separate from the act, then it is upvasa.
And it is also possible that a man may not really be fasting even though he may have denied himself food; for he may be too scious of being hungry, that he is dying of hunger.
Upvasa is a psychological awareness of the separation of the self and the physical state of hunger.
Other pains of a similar type also be created voluntarily, but creating such voluntary pain is a very deep experiment.
A man may lie on thorns just to experiehat the thorns only prick the body and not his self.
Thus a misery be invited in order to experiehe disassociation of sciousness from the physical plane.
But there are already enough uninvited miseries in the world -- o invite any more.
Already much misery is available -- one should start experimenting with it.
Miseries e uninvited anyway.
If, during the uninvited misery, one maintain the awarehat "I am separate from my suffering" then the suffering bees a sadhana, a spiritual discipline.
One will have to tihis sadhana even with happiness which has e on its own.
In suffering, it is possible we may succeed in deceiving ourselves because one would like to believe that "I am not pain.
" But when it es to happiness, a man wants to identify himself with it because he already believes that "I am happy.
" Hehe sadhana is even more difficult with happiness.
Nothing, in fact, is more painful than feeling that we are separate from our happiness.
Actually, a man wants to drown himself pletely in happiness and fet that he is separate from it.
Happiness drowns us; misery disects us as us apart from the self.
Somehow, we e to believe that our identification with suffering is only because we have no other choice, but we wele happiness with our whole being.
Be aware in the pain whies your way; be aware in the happiness whies your way -- and occasionally, just as an experiment, be aware in invited pain also, because in it, things are a little different.
We ever fully identify ourselves with anything we invite upon ourselves.
The very knowledge that it is an ihing creates the distance.
The guest who es to your home does not belong there -- he is a guest.
Similarly, when we invite suffering as uest, it is already something separate from us.
While walking barefoot a thets into your foot.
This is an act and its pain will be overwhelming.
This unfortunate act is different from when you purposely take a thorn and press it against your foot -- knowing every moment that you are pierg the foot with the thorn and watg the pain.
I am not asking you to go ahead and torture yourself; as it is, there is enough suffering already -- what I mean is: first be alert in going through both suffering and happiness; then later, one day, invite some misery and see how far away from it you set your sciousness.
Remember, the experiment of inviting misery is of great significe, because everyone wants to invite happiness but no one wants to invite misery.
And the iing thing is that the misery we dont want es on its own, and the happiness we seek never es.
Eve es by ce, it remains outside our door.
The happiness we be to never es, while the happiness we never ask for walks right in.
When a person gathers enough strength to invite misery, it means he is so happy that he invite suffering now.
He is so blissful that now there is no difficulty for him to invite suffering.
Now misery be asked to e and stay.
But this is a very deep experiment.
Until repared to uake su experiment, we must try to bee aware of whatever suffering es our way on its own.
If we go on being more and more aware each time we e aisery, we will gather enough capability to remain scious even wheh arrives.
Then nature will allow us to stay awake ih too.
Nature, as well, will figure that if the man stay scious in pain, he also remain scious ih.
No one stay scious ih all of a sudden, without having had a previous experience of the kind.
A man named P.
D.
Ouspensky died some years ago.
He was a great mathemati from Russia.
He is the only person in this tury who has done such extensive experiments iion to death.
Three months before his death, he became very ill.
The physis advised him to stay in bed, but in spite of this, he made su incredible effort it is beyond imagination.
He would not sleep at night; he traveled, walked, ran, was always on the move.
The physis were aghast; they said he needed plete rest.
Ouspensky called all his close friends near him but did not say anything to them.
The friends who stayed with him for three months, until his death, have said that for the first time they saw, before their eyes, a man acceptih in a scious state.
They asked him why did he not follow the physis advice.
Ouspensky replied, "I want to experience all kinds of paihe pain of death be so great that I might bee unscious.
I want to gh every pain before death; that create such a stamina ihat I be totally scious wheh es.
" So for three months he made an exemplary effort to gh all kinds of pain.
His friends have written that those who were fit ay would get tired, but not Ouspensky.
The physis insisted that he must have plete rest, otherwise it would cause him great harm -- but to no avail.
The night he died, Ouspensky kept walking bad forth in his room.
The physis who examined him declared that his legs had no more strength left to walk -- a he kept walking the whole night.
He said, "I want to die walking, lest I might die sitting and bee unscious, or I might die sleeping and bee unscious.
" As he walked, he told his friends, "Just a little bit longer -- ten more steps and all will be over.
I am sinking, but I shall keep walking until I have taken the last step.
I want to keep on doing something until the very end, otherwise death may catch me unawares.
I may relax and go to sleep -- I dont want this to happen at the moment of death.
"
Ouspensky died while taking his last step.
Very few people on this earth have died walking like this.
He fell down walking; that is, he fell only when his death occurred.
Taking his last step, he said, "Thats it; this is my last step.
Now I am about to fall.
But before departi me tell you I dropped my body long ago.
You will see my body being released now, but I have been seeing for a long time now that the body has dropped and still I exist.
The links with the body have all been broken a, inside, I still exist.
Now only the body will fall -- there is no way for me to fall down.
"
At the time of his death, his friends saw a kind of light in his eyes.
A peace, joy and radiance were visible which shihrough when one is standing ohreshold of the world beyond.
But one o make preparations for this, a tinuous preparation.
If a person prepares himself fully, theh bees a wonderful experience.
There is no other phenomenon more valuable than this, because what is revealed at the time of death ever be known otherwise.
Theh looks like a friend, for only at the occurrence of death we experiehat we are a living anism -- not before that.
Remember, the darker the night, the brighter the stars.
The flash of lightning stands out like a silver strand, the darker the clouds are.
Similarly, when, in its full form, death surrounds us from all sides, at that moment the very ter of life mas in all its glory -- never before that.
Death surrounds us like darkness, and in the middle, that very ter of life -- call it atman, the soul, shines in its full sple９９lib?ndor; the surrounding darkness makes it luminous.
But at that moment we bee unscious.
At the very moment of death, which could otherwise bee the moment to know our being, we bee unscious.
Hene will have to make preparations towards raising ones sciousness.
Meditation is that preparation.
Meditation is an experiment in how oains to a gradual, voluntary death.
It is an experiment in how one moves within and then leaves the body.
If oates throughout his life, he will attain to total meditation at the moment of death.
Wheh happens in full sciousness, the soul of the person takes its birth in full sciousness.
Then the very first day of his new life is not a day of ignora of full knowledge.
Even ihers womb he remains fully scious.
Only one more birth is possible for one who has died in a scious state.
There is no other birth possible for him after that -- because one who has experienced what birth is, what death is and what life is, attains liberation.
One who has taken birth in awareness, we have called him avatara, tirthankara, Buddha, Jesus, Krishna.
And the thing that distinguishes them from the rest of us is awareness.
They are awakened and we are asleep.
Having taken scious birth, this bees their final journey oh.
They have something we dont have, which, painstakingly, they ti to us.
The differeween the awakened ones and us is simply this: their previous death and the birth thereafter happened in a state of awareness -- hehey live their entire life in awareness.
People in Tibet do a little experiment called bardo.
It is a very valuable experiment, carried out only at the time of death.
When someone is about to die, people who know gather around him and make him do Bardo.
But only he who has meditated in his life be made to gh Bardo -- not otherwise.
In the experiment of Bardo, as soon as a person dies, instrus are given from the outside that he should remain fully awake.
He is told to keep watg whatever follows , because in that state, many times things happen which the dying person ever uand.
New phenomena are not so easy to follht away.
If a person stay scious after death, for a while he will not know that he is dead.
When people carry his dead body and start burning it at the cremation ground only then will he e to know for certain that he is dead -- because nothing actually dies inside, just a distance is created.
In life, this distance has never been experienced before.
The experience is so ot be grasped through ventional definition.
The person merely feels that something has separated.
But something has died, and that he only uands when people all around him start weeping and g, falling over his body in grief, getting ready to carry the body away for cremation.
There is a reason why the body is brought for cremation so soon.
The reason for burning or cremating the body as soon as possible is to assure the soul that the body is dead, that it is buro ashes.
But this a man know only if he has died in awareness; a man dying in an unscious state ot know this.
So in order for a man to see his body burning in Bardo, he is prompted, "Take a good look at your burning body.
Dont run or move away in haste.
When people bring your body for cremation, make sure you apany them and be present there.
Watch your body being cremated with perfect attention, so that ime you do not get attached to the physical body.
"
Once you see something burning to ashes, your attat for it disappears.
Others will, of course, see your body being cremated, but if you also see it, you will lose all your attat for it.
Normally, in nine hundred and y-nine cases out of a thousand, the man is unscious at the time of death; he has no knowledge of it.
On the one occasion when he is scious, he moves away from watg his burning body; he escapes from the cremation ground.
So in Bardo he is told, "Look, dont miss this opportunity.
Watch your body being cremated; just watch it ond for all.
Watch that which you have beeifying your self with all along beiroyed totally.
Watch it being reduced to ashes for certain, so that you may remember in your birth who you are.
"
As soon as a person dies he enters into a new world, one we know nothing about.
That world be scary and frightening to us because it is her like nor unlike any of our experiences.
In fact it has no e with life oh whatsoever.
Fag this new world is more frightening than it would be if a mao find himself in a strange try where everyone was a strao him, where he was unacquainted with their language, with their ways of living.
He would obviously be very perturbed and fused .
The world we live in is a world of physical bodies.
As we leave this world the incorporeal world begins -- a world we have never experienced.
It is even more frightening, because in our world, no matter how strahe place, how different its people and their ways of living, there is still a boween us and them: it is a realm of human beings.
Entering into the world of bodiless spirits be an experience frightening beyond imagination.
Ordinarily, we pass through it in an unscious state, and so we dont notice it.
But one who goes through it in a scious state gets into great difficulty.
So in Bardo there is an attempt to explain to the person what kind of a world it will be, what will happen there, what kind of beings he will e across.
Only those who have been through deep meditation be taken through this experiment -- not otherwise.
Lately, I have oftehat those friends ractig meditation be taken into the Bardo experiment in some form or other.
But this is possible only when they have gohrough deep meditation; otherwise, they would not even be able to hear what is being said to them.
They would not be able to hear what is being said at the moment of death, or follow what is being told to them.
In order to follow what is being said, a very silent ay mind is needed.
As the sciousness begins to fade and disappear, and as all earthly ties start being severed, only a very silent mind hear messages given from this world; they ot be heard otherwise.
Remember, it be done only in respect to death, if anything; nothing be doh respect to birth.
But whatsoever we do with death, it sequently affects our birth as well.
We are born in the same state in which we die.
An awakened one exercises his choi seleg the womb.
This shows that he never chooses anything blindly, unsciously.
He chooses his parents just as a rich man chooses his house.
A poor man ot have a house of his choice.
You need a certain capacity to choose.
One needs a capability to buy a house.
A poor man never chooses his house.
One should say that actually the house chooses the poor man; a poor house chooses a poor man.
A millionaire decides where he should reside, what the garden should look like, where the doors and windows should be fixed -- the sunlight should enter from the east or west; how the ventilation should be, how spacious the house should be -- he chooses everything.
An awakened one chooses a womb for himself; that is his choice.
Individuals like Mahavira or Buddha are not born anywhere and everywhere.
They take birth after sidering all possibilities: how the body will be and from which parents it will be ceived; what the energy will be like, how powerful he will be; what kind of facilities will be available to him.
They take birth after looking into all of this.
They have a clear choice of what to choose, where to go; hence, from the very first day of their birth they live the life of their own choice.
The joy of living a life of ones own choice is altogether different, because freedom begins with having a life of ones own choice.
There ot be the same kind of joy in a life which is given to you because then it bees servitude.
In such cases one is merely pushed into life and then whatever happens, happens -- the person has no role to play in it.
If su awakening bees possible then the choice definitely be made.
If the very birth happens out of our choice, then we live the rest of our lives in choice.
Then we live like a jeevan-mukta.
One who dies in an awakeate is born in an awakeate and then he lives his life in a liberated state.
We oftehe word jeevan-mukta, although we may not know what the word means.
Jeevan-mukta means: one who is born in an awakeate.
Only such a person be a jeevan-mukta; otherwise he may work his whole life for liberatio he attain freedom only in his life -- he will not be free in this life.
In order to be a jeevan-mukta in this life a man must have the freedom to choose from the very first day of his birth.
And this is possible only if one has attaio full sciousness in the dying moment of ones previous life.
But at this point that is not the question.
Life is here, death has not arrived yet.
It is sure to e; there is nothing more certain thah.
There be doubt regarding other things, but about death nothing whatsoever is in doubt.
There are people who have doubts about God, there are others who have doubts about the soul, but you may never have e across a man who has doubts about death.
It is iable -- it is sure to e; it is already on its way.
It is approag closer and closer every moment.
We utilize the moments which are available before death for our awakening.
Meditation is a teique to that effect.
My effort ihree days will be to help you uand that meditation is the teique for that very awakening.
Question 2
A FRIEND HAS ASKED: WHAT IS THE RELATIOWEEATION AND JATI-SMARAN, PAST LIFE REMEMBERING?
Jati-smaran means: a method of recalling past lives.
It is a way to remember our previous existences.
It is a form of meditation.
It is a specific application of meditation.
For example, one might ask, "What is a river, and what is a al? Our answer would be that the al is a specific application of the river itself -- well planned, but trolled and systematic.
The river is chaotirestrained; it too will reaewhere, but its destination is not certain.
The destination of the al is assured.
Meditation is like a big river -- it will reach to the o; it is sure to reach.
Meditation will surely bring you to God.
There are, however, other intermediary applications of meditation also.
Like small tributaries these be directed into als of meditation.
Jati-smaran is one such auxiliary method of meditation.
We elize the power of meditation towards our past lives also; meditation simply means the fog of attention.
There be applications where otention is focused on a given object, and one such application is jati-smaran -- fog on the dormant memories of past lives.
Remember, memories are never erased; a memory either remains latent or it arises.
But the latent memory appears to be erased.
If I ask you what you did on January 1, 1950, you will not be able to answer -- which does not mean that you might not have done anything on that day.
But suddenly the day of January 1, 1950 feels like a total blank.
It could not have been blank; as it passed, it was filled with activity.
But today it feels like a blank.
Similarly, today will bee blank tomorrow as well.
Ten years from now there will be no trace left of today.
So it is not that January 1, 1950 did , or that you did on that day -- what is implied is that since you are uo recall that day, how you believe it ever existed? But it did exist and there is a way to know about it.
Meditation be focused in that dire as well.
As soon as the light of meditation falls on that day, to your surprise you will see that it looks more alive than it ever was before.
For example, a persoers a dark room and moves around with a flashlight.
Wheurns the light to the left, the right side bees dark -- but nothing disappears on the right side.
When he moves the light to the right, the right side bees alive again, but the left side remains hidden in the dark.
Meditation has a focus, and if one wants to el it in a particular dire then it has to be used like a flashlight.
If, however, one wants to turn it towards the diviheation has to be applied like a lamp.
Please uand this carefully.
The lamp has no focus of its own; it is unfocused.
A lamp merely burns and its light spreads all around.
A lamp has no i in lighting up one dire or the other; whatsoever falls within the radius of light is lit up.
But the form of a flashlight is like a focused lamp.
In a flashlight we keep all the light and shi in one dire.
So it is possible that under a burning lamp things may bee visible, but hazy, and in order to see them clearly we trate the light on one place -- it bees a flashlight; thehing bees clearly visible.
However, the remaining objects are lost to view.
In fact, if a man wants to see an object clearly he will have to focus his total meditation in one dire only and turn the rest of the area into darkness.
One who wants to know the truth of life directly will develop his meditation like a lamp -- that will be his sole purpose.
And, in fact, the lamps only objective is to see itself; if it shihis much it is enough -- thats the end of it.
But if some special application of the lamp has to be made -- such as remembering past lives -- theation will have to be eled in one dire.
I will share with you two or three clues as to how meditation be elized in that dire.
I wont give you all the clues because, most likely, hardly any of you have any iion of using them, and those who have see me personally.
So I will mention two or three clues which, of course, wont really enable you to experiment with remembering past lives, but will give you just an idea.
I wont discuss the whole thing because its not advisable for everyoo experiment with this idea.
Also, this experiment often put you in danger.
Let me tell you of an i so that what I am saying bees clear to you.
For about two or three years, in respeeditation, a lady professor stayed in touch with me.
She was very insistent on experimenting with jati-smaran, on learning about her past life.
I helped her with the experiment; however, I also advised her that it would be better if she didnt do the experiment until her meditation was fully developed, otherwise it could be dangerous.
As it is, a single lifes memories are difficult to bear -- should the memories of the past three or four lives break the barrier and flood in, a person go mad.
Thats why nature has pla so we go on fetting the past.
Nature has given us a greater ability tet more than you remember, so that your mind does not have a greater burden than it carry.
A heavy burden be borne only after the capacity of your mind has increased, and trouble begins when the weight of these memories falls on you before this capacity has been raised.
But she remained persistent.
She paid o my advid went into the experiment.
When the flood of her past lifes memory finally burst upon her, she came running to me around two oclo the m.
She was a real mess; she was i distress.
She said, "Somehow this has got to stop.
I dont ever want to look at that side of things.
" But it is not so easy to stop the tide of memory o has broken loose.
It is very difficult to shut the door o crashes down -- the door does not simply open, it breaks open.
It took about fifteen days -- only then did the wave of memories stop.
What was the problem?
This lady used to claim that she was very pious, a woman of impeccable character.
When she entered the memory of her past life, when she rostitute, and the ses of her prostitution began to emerge, her whole being was shaken.
Her whole morality of this life was disturbed.
In this sort of revelation, it is not as if the visions belong to someone else -- the same woman who claimed to be chaste now saw herself as a prostitute.
It often happens that someone who rostitute in a past life bees deeply virtuous in the ; it is a rea to the suffering of the past life.
It is the memory of the pain and the hurt of the previous life that turns her into a chaste woman.
It often happens that people who were sinners in past lives bee saints in this life.
Hehere is quite a deep relationship between sinners and saints.
Such a rea often takes place, and the reason is, what we e to know hurts us and so we swing to the opposite extreme.
The pendulum of our minds keeps moving in the opposite dire.
No sooner does the pendulum reach the left than it moves back to the right.
It barely touches the right when it swings back to the left.
When you see the pendulum of a oving towards the left, be assured it is gathering energy to move back to the right -- it will go as far to the right as it has goo the left.
Hence, in life it often happens that a virtuous person bees a sinner, and a sinner bees virtuous.
This is very on; this sort of oscillation occurs in everyones life.
Do not think, therefore, that it is a general rule that one who has bee a holy man in this life must have been a holy man in his past life also.
It is not necessarily so.
What is necessarily so is the exact reverse of it -- he is laden with the pain of what he went through in his past life and has turo the opposite.
I have heard.
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A holy man and a prostitute once lived opposite each other.
Both died on the same day.
The soul of the prostitute was to be taken to heaven, and that of the holy man, however, to hell.
The envoys who had e to take them away were very puzzled.
They kept asking each other, "What went wrong? Is this a mistake? Why are we to take the holy man to hell? Wasnt he a holy man?"
The wisest among them said, "He was a holy man all right, but he ehe prostitute.
He always brooded over the parties at her plad the pleasures that went on there.
The notes of music which came drifting to his house would jolt him to his very core.
No admirer of the prostitute, sitting in front of her, was ever moved as much as he -- listening to the sounds ing from her residehe sounds of the small dang bells she wore on her ankles.
His whole attention always remained focused on her place.
Even while worshipping God, his ears were tuo the sounds which came from her house.
"And the prostitute? While she languished i of misery, she always wondered what unknown bliss the holy man was in.
Whenever she saw him carrying flowers for m worship, she wondered, When will I be worthy to take flowers of worship to the temple? I am so impure that I hardly even gather enough ce to ehe temple.
The holy man was never as lost in the inse smoke, in the shining lamps, in the sounds of worship as the prostitute was.
The prostitute always longed for the life of the holy man, and the holy man always craved for the pleasures of the prostitute.
"
Their is and attitudes, so totally opposite each others, so totally different from each others, had pletely ged.
This often happens -- and there are laws at work behind these happenings.
So when the memory of her past life came back to this lady professor, she was very hurt.
She felt hurt because her ego was shattered.
What she learned about her past life shook her, and now she waet it.
I had warned her in the first plaot to recall her past life without suffit preparation.
Since you have asked, I shall tell you a few basic things so that you uand the meaning of jati-smaran.
But they wont help you to experiment with it.
Those who wish to experiment will have to look into it separately.
The first thing is that if the purpose of jati-smaran is simply to know ones past life, then one o turn ones mind away from the future.
Our mind is future-oriented, not past-oriented.
Ordinarily, our mind is tered iure; it moves toward the future.
The stream of our thoughts is future-oriented, and it is in lifes is that the miure-oriented, not past-oriented.
Why be ed with the past? It is go is finished -- so we are ied in that which is about to e.
Thats why we keep asking astrologers what is in store for us iure.
We are ied in finding out what is going to happen iure.
One who wants to remember the past has to give up, absolutely, any i iure.
Because ohe flashlight of the mind is focused oure; ohe stream of thoughts has begun to move towards the future, then it ot be turned back towards the past.
So the first thing one o do is to break oneself pletely away from the future for a few months, for a certain specific period of time.
One should decide that he will not think of the future for the six months.
If a thought of the future does occur, he will simply salute it a go; he will not bee identified with and carried away by any feeling of future.
So the first thing is that, for six months, he will allow that there is no future and will flow towards the past.
And so, as soon as future is dropped, the current of thoughts turns towards the past.
First you will have to go ba this life; it is not possible to return to a past life all at once.
And there are teiques foing ba this life.
For example, as I said earlier, you dont remember now what you did on January 1, 1950.
There is a teique to find out.
If you go into the meditation which I have suggested, after ten minutes -- when the meditation has gone deeper, the body is relaxed, the breathing is relaxed, the mind has bee quiet -- the only ohing remain in your mind: "What took pla January 1, 1950?" Let your entire mind focus on it.
If that remains the only note eg in your mind, in a few days you will all of a sudden find a curtain is raised: the first of January appears and you begin to relive ead every event of that day from dawn to dusk.
And you will see the first of January in far more detail than you may have seen it, in actuality, on that very day -- because on that day, you may not have been this aware.
So, first, you will o experiment by regressing in this life.
It is very easy tress to the age of five; it bees very difficult to go beyond that age.
And so, ordinarily, we ot recall what happened before the age of five; that is the farthest back we go.
A few people might remember up to the third year, but beyond that it bees extremely difficult -- as if a barrier es across the entrand everything bees blocked.
A person who bees capable of recalling will be able to fully awaken the memory of any day up to the age of five.
The memory starts to be pletely revived.
Then one should test it.
For example, note down the events of today on a piece of paper and lock it away.
Two years later recall this day: opee and pare your memory with it.
You will be amazed to find that you have been able to recall more than what was noted on the paper.
The events are certain to return to your memory.
Buddha has called this alaya-vigyan.
There exists a er in our minds which Buddha has named alaya-vigyan.
Alaya-vigyan means the storehouse of sciousness.
As we store all our junk in the basement of a house, similarly, there is a storehouse of scioushat collects memories.
Birth after birth, everything is stored in it.
Nothing is ever removed from there, because a man never knows when he might hose things.
The physical body ges, but, in oiehat storehouse tinues, remains with us.
One never knows when it might be needed.
And whatsoever we have done in our lives, whatsoever we have experienced, known, lived -- everything is stored there.
One who remember to the age of five go beyond that age -- it is not very difficult.
The nature of the experiment will be the same.
Beyond the age of five there is yet another door which will lead you to the point of your birth, to when you appeared oh.
Then one es across another difficulty, because the memories of oay ihers womb never disappear either.
One pee these memories too, reag to the point of ception, to the moment when the genes of the mother and father unite and the soul enters.
A man enter into his past lives only after having reached this point; he ove into them directly.
One has to uake this much of the return journey, only then is it possible to move into ones past life as well.
After haviered the past life, the first memory to e up will be of the last event that took pla that life.
Remember, however, that this will cause some difficulty and will make little sense.
It is as if we run a film from the end or read a novel backwards -- we feel lost.
And so, entering into ones past life for the first time will be quite fusing because the sequence of events will be in the reverse order.
As you go bato your past life, you will e across death first, then old age, youth, childhood, and then birth.
It will be in reverse order, and in that order it will be very difficult to figure out what is what.
So when the memory surfaces for the first time, you feel tremendously restless and troubled, because it is difficult to make se is as if you are looking at a film or reading a novel from the end.
Perhaps you will only make heads or tails of a after rearranging the order several times.
So the greatest effort involved in going back to the memories of ones past life is seeing, in reverse order, events which ordinarily take pla the right order.
But, after all, what is the right or reverse order? It is just a question of how we ehe world and how we departed from it.
We sow a seed in the beginning, and the floears in the end.
However, if oo take a reverse look at this phenomenon, the flower would e first, followed in sequence by the bud, the plant, the leaves, the saplings and in the end the seed.
Since we have no previous knowledge of this reverse order, it takes a lot of time to rearrange memories coherently and to figure out the nature of evebbr>99ｌｉb?</abbr>nts clearly.
The strahing is that death will e first, followed by old age, illness, and then youth; things will occur in the reverse order.
Or, if you were married and then divorced, while going down memory lahe divorce will e first, followed by the love and then the marriage.
It will be extremely difficult to follow events in this regressive fashion, because normally we uand things in a one-dimensional way.
Our minds are one-dimensional.
To look at things in opposite order is very difficult -- we are not used to su experience; we are aced to moving in a linear dire.
With effort, however, one uand the events of a past life by following, in sequehe reverse order.
Surely, it will be an incredible experience.
Going through memories in this reverse order will be a very amazing experience, because seeing the divorce first and then the love and then the marriage, will make it instantly clear that the divorce was iable -- the divorce was i in the kind of love that happehe divorce was the only ultimate possible oute of the kind of marriage that took place.
But at the time of that past life marriage we hadnt the fai idea it would eventually end in divorce.
And ihe divorce was the result of that marriage.
If we could see this whole thing in its ey, then falling in love today would bee a totally different thing -- because now we could see the divor it beforehand, now we could see the enmity around the er even before making the friendship.
The memory of the past life will pletely turn this life upside-down, because now you wont be able to live the way you lived in your past life.
In your previous life you felt -- and the same feelis even now -- that success and great happiness were to be found by making a fortune.
What you will see first in your previous life is your state of unhappiness before seeing how you made the fortune.
This will clearly show that instead of being a source of happiness, making the fortune led, in fact, to unhappiness -- and friendship led to enmity, what was thought to be love turned into hatred, and what was sidered a unioed in separation.
Then, for the first time, you will see things in their right perspective, with their total import.
And this implication will ge your life, will ge the way you are living now pletely -- it will be airely different situation.
I have heard that a mao a monk and said, "I would be much obliged if you would accept me as your disciple.
" The monk refused.
The man asked why he would not make him his disciple.
The monk replied, "In my previous birth I had disciples who later turned into enemies.
I have seen the whole thing and now I know that to make disciples means to make eo make friends means to sow the seeds of enmity.
Now I dont want to make any enemies, so I dont make any friends.
I have known that to be alone is enough.
Drawing someone close to you is, in a ushing the person away from you.
"
Buddha has said that the meeting with the beloved brings joy and the parting of the unbeloved alss joy, that the parting of the beloved brings sorrow and the meeting with the unbeloved brings sorrow as well.
This is how it erceived; this is how it was uood.
However, later we e to uand that the one we feel is our beloved bee the unbeloved, and the one we sidered the unbeloved bee a beloved.
And so, with the recolle of past memories, the existing situations will ge radically; they will be seen in airely different perspective.
Such recolles are possible, though her necessary nor iable, and sometimes, iation, these memories may strike uedly as well.
If the memories of past lives ever do e all of a sudden -- without being involved in any experiment, but simply keeping on with ones meditation -- dont take muterest in them.
Just look at them; be a wito them -- because ordinarily the mind is incapable of bearing such vast turbulence all at once.
Attempting to cope with it, there is a distinct possibility of going mad.
Once a girl was brought to me.
She was about eleven years old.
Uedly, she had remembered three of her past lives.
She had not experimented with anything; but often, for some reason mistakes do happen all of a sudden.
This was an error on the part of nature, not its grace upon her; in some way nature had erred in her case.
It is the same as if someone had three eyes, or four arms -- this is an error.
Four arms would be much weaker than two arms; four arms couldnt work as effectively as two arms could -- four arms would make the body weaker, not stronger.
So the girl, eleven years old, remembered three past lives, and many inquiries were made into this case.
In her previous life she had lived about eighty miles from my present residence, and in that life she died at the age of sixty.
The people she lived with then are now the residents of my hometown, and she could reize all of them.
Even in a crowd of thousands, she could reize her past relatives -- her own brother, her daughters, and her grandchildren -- from the daughters, from the sons-in-law.
She could reize her distaives and tell many things about them even they had fotten.
Her elder brother is still alive.
On his head there is a scar from a small injury.
I asked the girl if she knew anything about that scar.
The girl laughed and said, "Even my brother doesnt know about it.
Let him tell you how and whe that injury.
" The brother could not recall when the injury occurred; he had no idea at all, he said.
The girl said, "On the day of his wedding, my brother fell while he was mounting the marriage horse.
He was ten years old then.
" The elderly people iown supported her story, admitting that the brother had, indeed, fallen from the horse.
And the man himself had no recolle of this event.
Then, as well, the girl displayed a treasure she had buried in the house she had lived in during her previous life.
In her last birth she died at the age of sixty, and previous to that birth she had been born in a village somewhere in Assam.
Then she had died at the age of seven.
She could not give the village name, nor her address, but she could speak as much of the Assamese language as a seven-year-old child could.
Also, she could dand sing like a seven-year-old girl could.
Many inquiries were made, but her family from that life could not be traced.
The girl has a past-life experience of sixty-seven years plus eleven years of this life.
You see in her eyes the resemblao a seventy-five to seve-year-old woman, although she is actually eleven years old.
She ot play with children of her own age because she feels too old.
Within her she carries the memory of seve years; she sees herself as a seve-year-old woman.
She ot go to school because, although she is eleven, she easily look upoeacher as her son.
So even though her body is eleven years old, her mind and personality are those of a seve-year-old woman.
She ot play and frolic like a child; she is only ied in the kinds of serious things old women talk about.
She is in agony; she is filled with tension.
Her body and mind are not in harmony.
She is in a very sad and painful state.
I advised her parents t the girl to me, and to let me help her fet the memories of her past lives.
Just as there is a method to revive memories, there is also a way tet them.
But her parents were enjoying the whole affair! Crowds of people came to see the girl; they began to worship her.
The parents were not ied in having her fet the past.
I warhem the girl would go mad, but they turned a deaf ear.
Today she is on the verge of insanity, because she ot bear the weight of so many memories.
Another problem is, how to get her married? She finds it difficult to ceive of marriage when, in fact, she feels like an old woman of seve.
There is no harmony of any kind within her; her body is young but the mind is old.
It is a very difficult situation.
But this was an act.
You also break open the passage with an experiment.
But it is not necessary to go in that dire; however, those who still wish to pursue it, experiment.
But before moving into the experiment it is essential they gh deep meditation so their minds bee so silent and strong that when the flood of memories breaks upohey accept it as a witnessing.
When a man grows into being a witness, past lives appear to be no more than dreams to him.
Then he is not tormented by the memories; now they mean nothing more than dreams.
When one succeeds in recalling past lives and they begin to appear like dreams, immediately ones present life begins to look like a dream too.
Those who have called this world maya have not done so just to propound a doe of philosophy.
Jati-smaran -- recalling past lives -- is at the base of it.
Whosoever has remembered his past lives, for him the whole affair has suddenly turned into a dream, an illusion.
Where are his friends of past lives? Where are his relatives, his wife and children, the houses he lived in? Where is that world? Where is everythiook to be so real? Where are those worries that gave him sleepless nights? Where are those pains and sufferings that seemed so insurmountable, that he carried like a dead weight on his back? And what became of the happiness he longed for? What happeo everything he so toiled and suffered for? If you ever remember your past life, and if you lived for seventy years, then whatever you might have seen in those seventy years, would that look like a dream or a reality? Indeed, it would look like a dream which had e and withered away.
I have heard.
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Once a kings only son lay on his deathbed.
Fht days he was in a a -- he couldnt be saved nor would death claim him.
On the one hand the king prayed for his life, while oher hand, aware of so much pain and suffering all around, he felt the futility of life at the same time.
The king could not sleep fht nights, but then, around four oclo, sleep overtook him and he began to dream.
We generally dream of those things which we have not fulfilled in life, and so the king, sitting by his only son, his dying son, dreamed that he had twelve strong and handsome sons.
He saw himself as the emperor of a large kingdom, as the ruler of the whole earth, with large aiful palaces.
And he saw himself as extremely happy.
As he was dreaming all this.
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Time runs faster in a dream; in a dream timing is totally different from our day-to-day time.
In a moment a dream cover a span of many years, and after waking up you will find it difficult to figure out how so many years were covered in a dream that lasted just a few moments! Time actually moves very fast in a dream; many years be spanned in one moment.
So, just as the king was dreaming about his twelve sons and their beautiful wives, about his palaces and the great kingdom, the ill, twelve-year-old prince died.
The queen screamed, and the kings sleep came to an abrupt end.
He awoke with a shock.
Worriedly, the queen asked, "Why do you look shtened? Why are there no tears in your eyes? Why dont you say something?"
The king said, "No, I am nhtened, I am fused.
I am in a great quandary.
I am w who I should cry for? Should I cry for the twelve sons I had a moment ago, or should I cry for this son I have just lost? The thing thats b me is, who has died? And the strahing is that when I was with those twelve sons, I had no knowledge of this son.
He was nowhere at all; there was no trace of him, or of you.
Now that I am out of the dream, this palace is here, you are here, my son is here -- but those palaces and those sons have disappeared.
Which is true? Is this true, or was that true? I ot figure it out.
"
Once you remember your past lives, you will find it difficult to figure out whether what you are seeing in this life is true or not.
You will realize you have seen the same stuff many times before and none of it has endured forever -- everything is lost.
Then the question will arise: "Is what I am seeing now just as true as what I saw before? .
.
.
Because this will run its course too and fade away like all other previous dreams.
Whech a movie it appears to be real.
After the film has ended, it takes us a few moments to e back to our reality, to aowledge that what we saw iheater was merely an illusion.
In fact, many people who ordinarily are incapable of givio their feelings are moved to tears in a movie.
They feel greatly relieved, because otherwise they would have had to find some other pretext for releasing their feelings.
They let themselves cry or laugh iheater.
When we e out of the movie, the first thing that occurs to us is how deeply we let ourselves bee identified with the happenings on the s.
If the same movie is seen every day the illusion gradually begins to clear.
But then we alset what happeo us during the last movie, and once again, when we go to a new film, we start believing in its events.
If we could regain the memories of our past lives, our present birth would also begin to look like a dream.
How many times before have these winds blown! How many times before have these clouds moved in the sky! They all appeared and then they vanished, and so will the ones here now -- they are already in the process of disappearing! If we e to realize this, we will experience what is known as maya.
Along with this we will also experiehat a}l happenings, all events are quite unreal -- they are never identical, but they are tra.
One dream es, is followed by another dream, and is followed by yet another dream.
The pilgrim starts from one moment aers into the one.
Moment after moment, the moments keep disappearing, but the pilgrim tinues moving on.
So two experiences occur simultaneously: ohe objective world is an illusion, maya -- only the observer is real; sed, pears is false -- only the seer, only the witness of it is true.
Appearances ge every day -- they have always ged -- only the witness, the observer is the same as before, geless.
And remember, as long as appearances seem real, your attention will not focus on the onlooker, oness.
Only when appearaurn out to be unreal does one bee aware of the witness.
Hence, I say, remembering past lives is useful, but only after you have gone deeper into meditation.
Go deep into meditation so you may attain the ability to see life as a dream.
Being a mahatma, a holy man, is as much of a dream as being a thief -- you have good dreams and you have bad dreams.
And the iing thing is that the dream of being a thief is likely to dissolve soon, whereas the dream of being a mahatma takes a little loo disappear because it seems so very enjoyable.
And so the dream of being a mahatma is more dangerous than the dream of being a thief.
We want to prolong our enjoyable dreams, while the painful ones dissolve by themselves.
Thats why it so often happens that a sinner succeeds in attaining to God while a holy man does not.
I have told you a few things about remembering your past lives, but you will have to go into meditation for this.
Let us start to move within from this very day onward; only then we be prepared for what follows .
Without this preparation, it is difficult to enter into past lives.
For example, there is a big house with underground cellars.
If a man, standing outside the house, wants to ehe cellars, he will first have to step ihe house, because the way to the cellar is from ihe house.
Our past lives are like cellars.
Once upon a time we lived there, and then we abahem -- now we are living somewhere else.
heless, we are standing outside the house at this point.
In order to uhe memories of past lives, we shall have to ehe house.
There is nothing difficult, bothersome or dangerous about it.
Question 3
ANOTHER FRIEND HAS ASKED: MY FRIEND, WHO IS A YOGI, CLAIMS HE ARROW IN HIS PAST LIFE.
IS THIS POSSIBLE?
It is possible that in the course of his evolution a man may have once been an animal, but he ot be born as an animal again.
In the process of evolution one ot fall back; retrogression is impossible.
It is possible to move ahead from the previous form of birth, but it is not possible, from an advanced form of birth, to fall back.
There is no going ba this world; there is no ce.
There are only two ways -- either we move ahead or stay where we are; we ot go back.
It is just as when a child passes first grade he moves on to the sed grade -- but if he fails he remains in the first grade.
There is no way, however, to pull him below first grade.
Similarly, if he fails in the sed grade we leave him there, but in no way we bring him back to the first grade.
We may either remain in one species for a very long time or move forward into the species, but we ot go back to a species lower than where we are.
It is indeed possible for someoo have previously been an animal or a bird; he must have been.
But how long he remained in those species is a different matter.
If we delve into our past lives, we will be able to recall the species assed through so far.
We may have been an animal, a bird, a little sparrow.
.
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lower and lower.
Once we must have been at such a point of iness where it is difficult to locate any sign of sciousness.
Mountains are alive as well; however, they tain almost no sciousness.
They tain y-nine pert iness and one pert sciousness.
As life evolves, sciousness keeps on growing and iness keeps on decreasing.
God is one hundred pert sciousness.
The differeween God and matter is of pertage.
The differeween God and matter is of quantity, not of quality.
Thats why matter ultimately bee God.
It is her strange nor difficult to accept that a man may have been an animal in his past life.
What is really amazing is that in spite of being human we behave like animals! It is not at all surprising that in some past life we have all been animals, but even as humans our sciousness be so low that pear like humans only on the physical level.
If we look into our tendencies, it seems that although we are no longer animals we have not yet bee human beiher; it藏书网 seems we are stuewhere iween.
As soon as an opportunity arises, we dont lose much time iing to the animal level once again.
For example, you are walking along the road like a gentleman and some fellow es and punches you, swears at you.
Instantly, the gentleman in you gives way and you find yourself expressing the same animal in you that you must have been in some past life.
Scratch the surface a little and the beast emerges from within -- and it es out so violently that one wonders if the person was ever a human being at all.
Our state of being now tains all we have ever been before.
There is layer upon layer of all the states we have been through in the past.
If we dig inside a little, we reach to the inner layers of our being -- we even reach the state when we were a rock; that too stitutes a layer inside.
Deep down inside we are still rocks; thats why when someone pushes us to that layer we behave like a rock, we act like a rock.
We also behave like animals -- in fact, we do.
What lies ahead of us are merely our potentialities -- they are not layers.
He times, although we take a jump and touch these potentialities, we drop back to earth again.
We be gods some day, but at present were not.
We have the potential to bee divine; however, what we are now sists of what we have been in the past.
So there are these two things: if we dig within we e across our various past states of being; and if we are thrown forward in the of births, we experiehe states which lie ahead of us.
However, just as when someoakes a jump -- for a sed he goes off the ground and into the air, but the very moment he is ba the ground -- at times we jump out of our animal state and bee<cite>..</cite> human beings, but then we revert to the same state again.
If you observe carefully, you will find that in a twenty-four-hour period, only on a while, at certain moments, are we truly human beings.
And we all know this only too well.
You must have observed beggars.
They always e to beg in the m.
They never e in the evening, because by evening the possibility of someone remaining a human being is virtually ent.
In the m, when a mas up -- refreshed by a good nights rest, fresh and cheerful -- the beggar hopes he will be a little humane.
He does not expey charity in the evening because he knows what the man has gohrough the whole day -- the office, the marketplace, the riots and protests, the neers and the politis -- all must have created a mess for him.
Everything must have aggravated and activated the animal layers inside him.
By evening the man is tired; he has turned into a beast.
Thats why you see beasts in nightclubs, displayily tendencies.
Man, tired of being a human the whole day, craves for alcohol, for noise, fambling, for dang, for striptease -- he wants to be among other beasts.
The nightclubs cater to the animal in man.
This is the reason why ms are the best for prayer, why the evening is ill-suited for it.
In all the temples the bells toll in the m; at night the doors open to the nightclubs, the os, the bars.
Prostitutes are uo invite anyone in the m, they iheir ers only at night.
After a hard days work, man turns into an animal; hehe world of night is different from the world of the day.
The mosque gives the call to prayer in the m, and the temple rings its bells in the m.
There is some hope that the man, up and refreshed in the m, will turn tod; there is less hope for this to happen from a man who is tired in the evening.
For the same reason, there is much hope that children will turn tod, but there is less hope for old people -- they are iwilight of their lives; life must have takehing away from them by now.
So one should start on the journey as soon as possible, as early in the m as possible.
The evening is sure to desd -- but before it desds, if we have set out on the journey in the m it is possible that in the evening we may find ourselves iemple of the divine as well.
So our friend is right in asking whether it is possible that a man may have been an animal or a bird in his past life.
What we o be aware of, though, is not to tio be a bird or a beast in this life.
Before we move into the meditatio us uand a few things.
First of all, you have to let yourself go pletely.
If you hold yourself back even a tiny bit, it will bee a hurdle iation.
Let yourself go as if you are dead, as if you have really died.
Death has to be accepted as if it has already arrived, as if all else has died and we are sinking deeper and deeper within.
Now only that which always survives will survive.
We will drop everything else which die.
Thats why I have said that this is an experiment with death.
There are three parts to this experiment.
The first is, relaxation of the body; sed, relaxation of breathing; third, relaxation of thought.
Body, breathing and thought -- all these have to be slowly let go of.
Please sit at a distance from each other.
It is possible that somebody may fall, so keep a little distaween yourselves.
Move a little back or e a little forward, but just see to it that you dont sit too close to each other; otherwise the whole time you will be busy saving yourself from falling over somebody.
When the body bees loose, it may fall forwards or backwards; one never knows.
You be sure of it only as long as you have a hold over it.
Once you give up your hold on the body, it automatically drops.
Once you loosen yrip from within, who will hold the body? -- it is bound to fall.
And if you remain preoccupied with preventing it from falling, you will stay where you are -- you wont be able to move into meditation.
So when your body is about to fall, sider it a blessing.
Let go of it at once.
Dont hold it back, because if you do you will keep yourself from moving inward.
And dont be upset if someone falls on you; let it be so.
If someones head lies in your lap for a while, let it be so; dohered by it.
Now close your eyes.
Close them gently.
Relax your body.
Let it be pletely loose, as if there is no life in it.
Draw all the energy from your body; take it inside.
As the energy moves within, the body will bee loose.
Now I will begin my suggestions that the body is being loose, that we are being silent.
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Feel the body being loose.
Let go.
Move within just as a person moves inside his house.
Move inside, enter within.
The body is relaxing.
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Let go pletely.
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let it be lifeless, as if it is dead.
The body is relaxing, the body has relaxed, the body has pletely relaxed.
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I take it that you have totally relaxed your body, that you have given up your hold over it.
If the body falls, so be it; if it bends forward, let it bend.
Let whatever has to happen, happen -- you relax.
See that you are not holding anything back.
Take a look io be sure that you are not holding your body back.
You ought to be able to say, "I am not holding baything.
I have let myself go pletely.
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The body is relaxed, the body is loose.
The breath is calming down, the breath is slowing down.
Feel it.
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the breathing has slowed down.
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let it go pletely.
Let your breathing go too, just give up your hold on it pletely.
The breath is slowing down, the breath is calming down.
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The breathing has calmed down, the breathing has slowed down.
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The breathing has calmed down.
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thoughts are calming down too.
Feel it.
Thoughts are being silent.
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let go.
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You have let the body go, you have let the breathing go, now let thoughts go as well.
Move away.
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move within totally, move away from thoughts also.
Everything has bee silent, as if everything outside is dead.
Everything is dead.
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everything has bee silent.
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only sciousness is left within.
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a burning lamp of sciousness -- the rest is all dead.
Let go.
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let go pletely -- as if you are no more.
Let go totally.
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as if your body is dead, as if your body is no more.
Your breathing is still, your thoughts are still -- as if death has occurred.
And move within, move totally within.
Let go.
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let everything go.
Let go totally, dont keep anything.
You are dead.
Feel as if everything is dead, as if all is dead -- only a burning lamp is left ihe rest is all dead.
Everything else is dead, erased.
Be lost iiness for ten minutes.
Be a witness.
Keep watg this death.
Everything else around you has disappeared.
The body is also left, left far behind, far away -- we are just watg it.
Keep watg, remain a witness.
For ten minutes keep looking within.
Keep looking inside.
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everything else will be dead outside.
Let go.
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be totally dead.
Keep watg, remain a witness.
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Let everything go as if you are dead and the body oside is dead.
The body is still, thoughts are still, only the lamp of sciousness is left watg, only the seer is left, only the witness is left.
Let go.
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let go.
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let go totally.
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Whatever is happening, let it happen.
Let go pletely, just keep watg inside ahe rest go.
Give up your hold pletely.
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The mind has bee silent ay, the mind has bee totally empty.
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The mind has bee empty, the mind has bee totally empty.
If you are still holding back a little, let that go also.
Let go totally, disappear -- as if you are no more.
The mind has bee empty.
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the mind has bee silent ay.
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the mind has bee totally empty.
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Keep looking inside, keep looking ih awareness -- everything has bee silent.
The body is left behind, left far away; the mind is left far away, only a lamp is burning, a lamp of sciousness, only the light is left burning.
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Now slowly take a few breaths.
Keep watg your breath.
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With each breath the silence will go deeper.
Take a few breaths slowly and keep looking within; remain a wito the breathing also.
The mind will bee even more silent.
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Take a few breaths slowly, thely open your eyes.
If anyone has fallen, take a deep breath first and the up slowly.
Dont rush if you are uo rise, dont rush if you find it difficult to open your eyes.
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First take a deep breath, then open your eyes slowly.
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rise very softly.
Dont do anything with a sudden movement -- her rising nor opening your eyes.
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Our m session of meditation is now over.
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